Consider a story. In this story you are the
hero(ine). Although you command respect based on a long history of past
exploits, it's still difficult to convince others to follow your advice, let
alone save the world.

You are a Spectre - an agent of cosmic
importance - and you report directly to the galactic council, an interplanetary
organization that outshines the UN in terms of bureaucratic complexity. Oh, have
we mentioned that this is a science fiction universe set in a video game?
Specifically, the universe of Bioware's Mass Effect?

Anyway, you are a Spectre, and you found out
the galaxy is under threat by an alien previously unknown. Naturally, you
assume that all sentient life in the galaxy must unite under a common banner to
defeat this threat.

You assume.

What you fail to recognize is that uniting
means that the galactic council has to cut through never-ending bureaucratic
procedures to act fast. Uniting also means that the Quarians and the Geth
people have to set aside centuries-old enmities, all races are probably going
to have to take orders from the Turians (the species with the greatest military
might), the Krogan feel they have no future anyway (they are an infertile
species so what's the point), the Salarians are the reason the Krogan have no
future, the Asari are hesitant to heed advise from a species whose individuals
can barely (if at all) live a century, and species like the Batarians take
pride in never have joined the Council in the first place. Let's not forget
that Humanity is universally believed - and in some ways rightly so - to place
its own interests over those of other species and to work politics in ways that
raise its status in the galaxy.

And of course, so does every other species.

It is these power grabs, the pride and
distrust and political jockeying - it is these individual and tribal goals that
prevent any larger collective goals from being accomplished. You are frustrated
because they won’t pull together. You’re even more frustrated because the
reasons that everyone won’t pull together are not all trivial. And you suddenly
realize why harnessing collective action can be so problematic.

Stepping out of the science fiction, most see
our Earthly challenges as rather less dramatic. There is no alien threat; there
are no malicious beings out to get us. What happens to us on Earth now happens
because we do it to ourselves. And the problems we face are planetary in scale,
not galactic. (But really, isn't that big enough?)

And there's no lone hero to save the day.

Yet, Mass Effect is allegorical for many
social and environmental issues we face today, as is the best science fiction.

Mass Effect and International negotiations aren’t exactly the same,
but they’re similar, if you look close enough.

Humanity is poorly equipped to address global
climate change and other planetary issues (desertification, resource shortages,
etc.) because global concerns tend to take a backseat to national and local concerns.
Results from past international meetings to take action to slow or prevent
further climate change, species loss, and other forms of pollution and
environmental degradation are widely seen as failures, because, as with the
universe of Mass Effect, the goals and agendas of smaller groups can hinder
action on the issues that the larger group faces. And the reasons for these
outcomes aren’t trivial.

Not always.

We cannot overlook concerns over who will
benefit, and who will lose from what outcome. In climate debates, many argue
that those countries that caused
the problems in the first place should take the bulk of the steps to
reverse them. Some countries will be hit harder and faster than others, so the
immediacy of environmental threats differs across groups. There are tribal and
national interests everywhere there are tribes and nations. And while the
concerns of small groups are worthy of consideration, sometimes only
considering what's good for the small group is counterproductive or detrimental
to the larger group. The trick is finding ways that compensate the concerns of
smaller groups while achieving the larger objective. Those who benefit could recompense
those who don’t, or groups can mobilize
to work together to achieve mutual or reciprocal goals.

Collective action is difficult, but imagine
yourself as the hero(ine) again. Imagine how frustrating it is to know that all
your attempts to save others are thwarted by the same people you're trying to
save. It's not malicious: no one wants environmental problems to persist just
as no species wants to see the end of the galaxy. Everyone wants to see the
larger goals achieved, just after the more personal goals are met first. Commander
Sheppard helps multiple alien species achieve their individual goals, and in
doing so wins their trust and their support to fight back the Reapers. Winning
trust among groups can help foster the compromises, compensation and group
mobilization to achieve collective action.

Then remember that there are no solitary
heroes. Winning trust takes multiple groups working with each other. Collective
problems require collective action.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Steve Jobs mentioned in his famous 2005
Stanford graduation speech that you can only connect the dots looking
backwards. He speaks of learning
calligraphy as a Reed College dropout and how it informed the fonts in Apple’s
first computers. He explained:

“. . . you can't
connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.
So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You
have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This
approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

These words have often encouraged me as I look at my life
and wonder how all the pieces fit together.
I have followed my heart and my passions and they have led me to
Indonesia and Guatemala, photography and woodworking, anthropology and
ecotoxicology. Yet even when each step
feels right to me at the moment, I often doubt myself, wondering: how might I
ever have, as my grandmother implores, a “marketable talent”? And more
importantly to me: how will this seemingly random collection of experiences
allow me to contribute anything worthwhile to the world? Is ‘follow your heart’
just some Pollyannaish hippy advice sure to leave me unemployed and useless?

Yet my recent Master’s thesis research gave me hope and made
Steve Job’s words come alive. There were
moments when I had the feeling that the disjointed experiences from my past
came together to prepare me for the task at hand. Once, I was hiking through an abandoned field
with a couple farmers, looking for the source of the river, a place where I
could take my control water samples.
Chatting in Spanish, analyzing the landscape for run-off patterns, and
tromping around a Colombian swamp in rubber boots—I saw all the dots
connect.

Looking for the source.

Years ago when I decided to learn Spanish and spent months
and months straining to understand farmers, learning tricks to get by, I had no
idea that I would be using it to discuss the watershed structure and local
history with these farmers in Colombia.

When I signed up for fluid dynamics and hydrology courses in
my undergrad years I had no idea these would inform my analysis of this one
watershed in Colombia.

Walking through a swamp in Patagonia (with my husband Claude).

And when I traveled to Patagonia to see the glaciers I had
no idea that the days I spent learning to walk through a swamp in rubber boots
would help me navigate this field in Colombia.

Even all the hours waiting for the bus by the side of the
road years earlier in Costa Rica, when I learned to be patient and let events
progress on Latin time, gave me the frame of mind to accept the slow but steady
progress of my master’s research.

Collecting a water sample in Colombia.

This is the reserve of life experiences that I drew on to guide
me. To do my Master’s research, required
all my being, my experiences, my patience, my knowledge. It was precisely my
broad and diverse experiences, the avenues I had pursued without knowing where
they would lead, that enabled me to conduct my research.

Now I am starting my PhD at an interdisciplinary institute
and I face the uncertainty of my future with more comfort. The work we do is founded on bringing
together diverse experiences. These experiences are what allow us to see a
problem from many angles and to know that no matter how many angles we analyze,
we will always miss part of the story.
As we pick apart an issue we each connect the dots in our own way,
finding the linkages that a traditional career path would never prepare us
for.